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Strom Noir – Urban Blues [English/Polish]

ENG: “Urban Blues” by Strom Noir is one of those albums that I know what type of sound I’ll find in before I play the CD. Yet at the same time it’s this kind of album where I don’t mind it at all. I’ve already presented Strom Noir on Santa Sangre and I’m glad that this one-man project came under Zoharum’s wings and has a chance to reach more people in Poland.

Contrary to the title you won’t find here a single tune of blues. Personally I’d also debate the term “urban” in the title. Of course there are those nice, although quite ascetic visuals, trying to capture the spirit of the city – skyscrapers, crowded subway trains, sterile rooms like an unfinished office building… For me though this music is separated from the crowd and noise by a thick line. But if I had to project an image of the city through the eyes of the soul, it would have been a late autumn panorama view from one of the top floors of a skyscraper. Sound-proof windows attenuating car engines, car horns, people swearing at each other, hurrying to god knows where… Only the hum of fluorescent lamps and raindrops beating on the glass break the silence.

Such modest and subtle music is offered by Emil Mat’ko who on “Urban Blues” generates the sounds primarily – if not solely – using his guitar. He blurs the effects however, as the sounds are virtually devoid of sharp edges; it’s the kind of ambient that resembles a bath in hot water: it seems as if the music doesn’t get to me only through the sense of hearing, but wraps my entire body which absorbs it, and it becomes one with me. Sounds a bit pretentious perhaps, but you get the idea. There’s no darkness, violent emotions or pathos. It’s environment music, yes, but in a very subtle manner this environment is being changed, the music shaping it into its likeness. While listening to “Urban Blues” I see gray, but I feel warm. I’m in a city, but it seems as if I am somewhere else, far away from any buildings. Or at least in a room with very tight windows.

Another example that you don’t need to invent the wheel to seduce the listener. Emil seems like a humble and nice person, and his music only confirms that he has no aspirations to be one of the top stars on the ambient firmament. He just wants to give the listener a couple of minutes of pleasure and relaxation, in a simple but classy manner. And he simply succeeds in doing so.